The Rest of the Story
Laxmi, Santosh and Kiran were accepted into an orphanage named Child Haven International.
Child Haven is a non-profit organization, run out of Toronto, Canada that has 4 homes
running in India and Nepal. The children studied at the home for three years and did fabulously in school;
both Santosh and Laxmi receiving
top honours in their classes. They gained a lot of weight and were looking very healthy. Santosh got full use of
his leg back and Kiran became a very friendly little clown. Laxmi became a proper little lady with a gorgeous smile!
Then in July of 2003, their father came to the home and removed them. He sold Laxmi into marriage for the equivalent of $1000 Cdn,
and made the boys go back to the streets. That is the terrible end to the story. But...we know that the children
will never forget the opportunity they had, and we can only hope they will want to break the cycle and give their
children a better life than their father provided for them.
2008 Update
Vinod
Vinod continued to take care of his brothers and sisters up until the day they were taken out of the orphanage.
He found them in Mumbai and immediately told them that he would take them back. When the children told him that
he wasn't their father and to leave them alone, Vinod said that they weren't his family anymore. A claim that
he has stuck to, to this day. Vinod got married in November 2006. His wife had a miscarriage in October 2008. It has been very hard on him.
Laxmi
Laxmi is now a very proud mother. She has two children - a boy who is 5 and a two year old baby girl. She definitley misses
her close contact with her brothers, but is carrrying on!
Santosh
Santosh was doing really well up to 2008. He was quite the gentleman and had become a main student at the One! school - one of the boys
that all of the other boys looked up to. He worked at the school for over a year - swaying from fantastic to horrible by the minute. Unfortunately, Santosh started spending more and more time at the horrible side, lost his job at school and has been up to no good since. He pops into the school regularly to say hi. Hopefully he will still turn around again before too late.
Kiran
For three years - eventhough he lived only two minutes away - we never saw him and he
refused to come to school. In October 2006, he stepped into school with his good friend Pappu and has attended off and on for over a year. Since the end of 2007, we have barely seen Kiran. Know he is safe and healthy, but up to no good - known as the area thief. Again, let's hope that he sees some sort of light before he gets into bigger messes.
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